Top SEOmoz Posts of&nbsp2010

The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.

Over here at the mozPlex we thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of our “Best Posts” of 2010. But how do we determine what a best post is? Do we look at the number of thumbs up… or do we care more about traffic generated by the post? Or since we’re SEOs over here, is a top post based on the number of linking root domains it’s obtained?

Well why not look at all of these aspects? So we did! What's interesting is that as we began to look at these "top" lists, we realized that what the SEOmoz community liked (based on thumbs up) weren't necessarily the most linked to posts, nor were they the most trafficked. Digging just a bit deeper, I went back and looked at the feedback we received back in April when we asked what we could do for you, to see if the topics chosen as the top picks, were the same topics with the most thumbs up.

Back in April, 650+ people voted and the following 10 topics were the ones the community wanted to see more of on the blog:

Now let's take a look at the "Best Posts of 2010" based on Thumbs, Traffic and Backlinks and see if we've brought you the content you wanted.

Top Posts of 2010 By Thumbs Up

For these posts I simply used the popular post feature from the right nav. The top thumbed up post wins by a huge landslide and every single one of these posts are based on topics from the top ten list of topics above. Apparently you weren't lying when you filled out that form in April. :) Plus, check out the value of community! Four of the top posts started in YOUmoz and one was guest post promoted directly to the main blog. When the community speaks... the community likes. (Also, Rand is a blogging machine)

Top Posts of 2010 By Unique Visits

We've looked at the posts that the community decided were top notch, but what about if we look at traffic stats? Will we see the same posts in the top 10? No, actually. Only half of the top thumbed up posts, were also the top trafficked! If you take a look at these posts, you'll notice that the topics aren't necessarily the ones that the community wanted to see more of. Which says to me that the traffic we received on these posts mainly came from new visitors or non-regular mozzers.

2. Facebook Marketing: Ultimate GuideBy timsoulo on July 14th 2010 Again, the Facebook Marketing Guide makes the top 10 list. Since this broke out of the SEO only crowd, it did really well in the social networks.

Top Posts of 2010 By Linking Root Domains

In order to find the posts from 2010 with the most backlinks, specifically looking a total number of linking root domains, Casey Henry dipped into the Linksape API to help me grab the data. Only two of these posts are also in the other two lists, while finally two Whiteboard Friday's make their way into this top list. I wonder what makes someone link to a post, but not thumb it up? Either way it looks like Rand is our #1 linkbaiter. :)

//Note: These top comments seem to be incorrect, I'll try to update this later today with the correct ones.

Top Posts of 2010 By Retweet - New!

Woo hoo! Thanks to the fine folks over at PostRank (specifically Ilya Grigorik), this morning I got a list of the top 10 retweeted SEOmoz posts of 2010. Since I got the data last minute, it doesn't look quite as pretty as the ones above, but seriously cool data! Thanks PostRank! It's interestng to see the differences in what gets retweeted and what gets traffic. About half of these posts are about social media... so does writing about social media get you more tweets? Could be an interesting test. :)

Whew!! It was fun to go through the old posts, and personally I felt pretty good knowing that I had already read every single one of these great posts. I hope you'll take the time and read through the posts you've missed, this is our best content of the year! I think it's pretty obvious that for 2011 we all need to work on beating Rand. His posts won all three areas, plus he even got the most thumbs up on a comment. Come on people... we can do this. :)

We're hoping to get nominations for the Crunchies for "Best Internet Application" and "Best Technology Achievement" - we'd love your vote! It's easy... just click on the badges below, then nominate SEOmoz. Plus you can vote once per day in each category until Februrary 24th. Thanks much!

Really a nice compilation of great posts. Yes, it has been a great year of great readings here... and still we have 16th days and great posts that will be published still :)

What I want to remark is this: 4 of most thumbed up posts are coming from YOUmoz. That means, dear readers-only-the-main-blog that there you can find really great gems, SEOs and Web Marketers that have great things to share and that you are probably missing. So, I invite to visit it more and to subscribe to its RSS.

Finally, Jennita, I miss one Top Ten List: the most commented posts of 2010.

I miss it because of these reasons:

the number of comments usually show how much controversial or engaging was the post in the community;

I saw - but maybe I am wrong as I do not have the metrics - that the use of the thumbs up/down have diminished lately. For instance, I read posts that surely would have been worth more thumbs up (and I'm not talking of mine :) )

I saw also a decrease of the comments, which is something I see also in other blogs. Maybe people now tend to twitter out most the post with a short comment with the tweet... somehow this reminds me the Rand thoughts about the Twitter cannibalization of the links.

And... well, maybe this is an old fashion kind of idea: what about an essay kind of printed book every year with the best of the best of the blog? Maybe a limited edition sold directly through the SEOmoz site?

P.S.: I would like to thanks all the people that thumbed up my posts, commented it and that were too way generous with my comments here. And thanks also to those ones that thumbed me down and criticized me, because they too helped me being a better SEO.

I'd hazard a guess that the new format for the website is responsible for the major drop in thumbs up and lack of comments.

Personally, I find it more difficult to track conversations as the spacing is greater and seemingly more disjointed.

Another glaring issue is the "new" marker. It used to be easily visible while quickly scrolling down the comments to see what new comments there were. The color and typeface they are using makes it impossible to see unless you scroll slowly and carefully. And often, I don't have the time so once I comment, I'll not go back to see what came after my comment.

The #1 wish on my Christmas wish list is improving the layout to fix theses issues.

Thumbs up for the shout-out to YOUmoz. Some of us got our start there, at least in terms of SEO blogging, and it's still a great resource. Plus, Jen does a great job of running the show over there. I've stepped in for a few days here and there when she's out, and even tag-teaming with Casey, it's a tough job. You people write LONG posts :)

Haha! Yes I meant to make the point actually that I was originally going to show the top YOUmoz posts as well, but then realized that many of the top YOUmoz posts were actually part of the top main blog posts! That's a pretty big deal and it makes me very happy!

Gianluca where were you 3 days ago when we were determining what would be part of the post?? That's a great idea to look at comments. Since it looks like our "top comments" list isn't quite right, maybe I'll do a whole post just on the top comments and top commented posts and why. Thanks for the suggestion!

As much as it pains me to say nice things about Rand, I reference (1) and (8) in the first Top 10 all the time in Q&A. His "All Links are Not Created Equal" is incredibly useful. If you haven't read it and you do SEO of any kind, read it now.

It's been a great year for SEO and my first with SEOmoz. I can't speak highly enough about the quality of the content and sharing of information from you guys. Thanks a lot and merry Christmas from the UK.

Jen, can't thank YOU enough for this recap and agree with many you chose and found some unread nuggets. There has been a glut of "things to read" this past year, and you just consolidated my reading list into one package - feels like a gift!

Jen, you said "I wonder what makes someone link to a post, but not thumb it up?" I think I can give you a hint. In order to give a thumbs up to any post or comment, the user has to be logged in. That means they need to register. Granted, registration is free, and only takes a minute (if that), but linking to a post is even LESS hassle -- just copy and paste the link in your address bar. What's more, you don't need to part with your email address or come up with a user name or password. In short, if you're just a casual reader, it's easier to link to a post than give it a thumbs up.

Wow, so as I mentioned below, this is my fault. I was using a database that I use to catch SPAM and it looks like it may have missed some comments. I'm working on getting it updated so Jen can update her post with the correct comment. My apologizes again.

on a more serious note, sorry though, didnt scroll down and read the other replies.My excuse is a very sore back and Im munching painkillers (possibly a bad idea as Im having beers with @seogadget in an hour... )

Jennita you may be surprised but i keep a record of all the good things said about me or done by me on the internet. Its my way of building my testimonials. I keep an eye on what people are talking about me, what they are sharing,who is following, who is not following (thanks to social media monitoring tools). I have got both record thumbs up and record thumbs down on this blog. I beat both Darren and Jane in top comments and on par with Lucas in getting thumbs up. This is my comment posted on August 9, 2010 which got 17 thumbs up and 0 thumbs down:

That could be my fault. I collected that information for her from a database I use to fit spam on the website and the data can be spotty at times depending on the last time my crawler visited the post. I checked and thought all my data was updated within the last week, must have a hole in there somewhere.... Sorry about that, great comments though, keep it up!

I am not fixating on anything. Just presenting the facts here. I would also like to point out that someone just thumb down my most thumbed up posts to falsify my claims. People agree or disagree only when they value your opinion in the first place period.